PARLIAMENT BN’s Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin today said mixed-race voters will face a boon if Malaysia takes up Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim’s suggestion that voters choose MPs according to their ethnicity.

The proposal made many opposition MPs fume yesterday but Bung lauded the idea. Tackling a problem thrown up by PKR MP Tian Chua, Bung said voters with mixed-parentage can simply choose their own race category.

“Those who have two or three blood lines, they can choose whatever they like.

“If they are Chinese and Malay, it’s up to them to choose... they can go both ways. Humans can always live in two worlds after all,” Bung told Parliament.

Speaking in Parliament today, Bung said that the idea is good because his Sungai Melayu clan could then have two or three representatives at the federal level instead of just one individual, as they do now.

He also dismissed other MPs who said Shahidan had urged an apartheid system in Malaysia.

“In our country, the Malays make up a bigger majority, so that’s not apartheid. Malays have a right to get more votes than other races because we are more numerous,” he said.

Bung noted that Singapore, too, had at one time used such a system.

“In Singapore they have elections according to ethnic races as suggested by the minister,” he said.

“This will definitely give justice for all the races in the country,” he added.

Yesterday, Shahidan ( right ) gave his alternative version to the “one man, one vote” as championed by the PKR, who argued that under the current electoral delineation map, rural voters received more weight.

Shahidan said that Parliamentary seats should then be parceled out according to the racial make-up of Malaysians.

This way, Malays would vote for a Malay MP, Chinese vote for a Chinese MP, and so forth.

DAP MP Ong Kian Ming then urged Shahidan to resign or be sacked, given that he has disrespected the Malaysian constitution which spelled out that MPs should not be chosen by their race.

In his defence, Shahidan said that his system would solve racial disputes and bring peace to the country.

'Even more worried than yesterday'

In a knee-jerk reaction, Ong, the MP for Serdang, told reporters at the Parliament lobby that he was now getting even more worried than yesterday.

“Now, (Bung Moktar) supports this idea, and that makes two BN MPs.

“I want to ask whether the PM also backs this idea or not. I want to know, other than Umno, whether the other BN parties back this idea or not?” Ong said.

Ong added that he was seriously alarmed as Shahidan, being the minister overseeing the Election Commission, can make such irresponsible statements.

MCA and Gerakan have already issued statements condemning Shahidan’s remark.